The mountain lion (Puma concolor) is called by many names, such as cougar,
puma, panther, catamount (cat of the mountains) or just plain lion. Different
names are often favored in different areas of the country. But none is entirely
satisfactory.

Most commonly in the northern Rocky Mountains, the term "mountain
lion" is probably used. And these pages follow that custom — despite,
technically, the big cat being neither a lion nor originally restricted to
mountains. (True lions belong to a different subfamily termed Pantherinae.
See
ITIS taxonomy.)

There are numerous sources profiling this
species. A few are linked near the bottom of the page. We will not compete with
them. Our interests are in sharing the backcountry with the big cat. But that
does require some background information — even if not quite so thorough as in
other sites.

So it is in our interest to include some brief
notes on mountain lion habitat, reproduction, diet, and so on. Some of those
factors explain how an encounter could more likely be a problem both for the cat
and the human. Understanding the nature of mountain lions helps us understand
how to conduct ourselves as hikers and backpackers in mountain lion country.

SPECIES BACKGROUND PROFILE

Mountain lions prefer terrain with concealment to aid in
stalking their prey. So they select forest or high-scrub areas in steep or
rugged terrain at mid-high elevations or along river drainages. In Wyoming,
prime habitat includes the foothills of alpine mountain ranges and the entire
Black Hills.

Male mountain lions are strongly territorial. They will
battle other males to keep them out of home territories. However, males will
allow a few females to share that territory. With those females, the male
breeds. So it is possible to find sign of different mountain lions within the
same territory. Those would be the male, a few females, and the kittens (or
cubs) that the females tend and train to hunt. Generally, age classifications
are as follows:

"kitten," dependent upon mother, even after weaning
(at 2 to 3 months age), learning to hunt —
up to 1 to 1.5 years old or perhaps older for females;

"subadult," independent from mother, seeking
territory, not yet breeding — less than
about 2.5 years old;

"adult," breeding age —
beyond about 2.5 years.

Courtship can occur any
time of the year, but in our area of concern, the peak time for births is
mid-August. On average then, the female will give birth every other year to two
to three kittens. The female then spends about 1.5 years training its
young to hunt. During that time, it is possible, if rare, to see as many as
three or four mountain lions hunting together (See
photos on Flickr).

But as the male cubs grow, the dominant male in that
territory becomes intolerant of the younger males and may chase them off, if
they don't disperse soon enough. But sub-adult males are inclined on their
own to disperse from their mother and seek their own territories. They are
unlikely to mate until they are successful in that search.

If the dominant male in the territory allows the male cubs
time to learn to hunt before being chased away, then the dispersing young male
may succeed in establishing a territory of its own where it can prey upon wild
ungulates.

In search of that territory, dispersing subadult males
have been documented to travel up to thousands of miles
— though the distance is most often simply beyond the territory of their
birth and that of other powerful males. Subadult males do not
remain in the territory in which they were born. The females, however, upon
independence from their mother, may remain in the same territory of birth, if
prey resources are sufficient.

If, before voluntarily dispersing or being chased away,
the young male is not allowed sufficient time to learn hunting skills from his
mother, then two problems may arise. First, the young dispersing male may be
forced to experiment with various prey species, some of which may be
domesticated animals such as pets or livestock. And secondly, the young male may
be forced into fringe territories nearer civilization where encounters with
humans pose a risk to the cat's survival. For these reasons, one way or another,
young males are often the mountain lions that get into trouble with humans.

Similarly, if the mother is killed by hunting, vehicle
collision, or other mishap, both female and male kittens may be forced to
survive without adequate training to hunt. Thus both young females and males, in
learning to hunt on their own, may become "problem animals" before or after they
have secured their own territories.

THE HIDDEN PREDATOR

More than any large predator native to Wyoming and the
Black Hills — including grizzly and black bears, wolves, and coyotes — mountain
lions live by stealth and avoid being seen. So much more common than actual
sightings, or even photographs, is the finding of mountain lion "sign,"
including tracks, scat, kill sites, or scratching posts — in that order.

Yet finding even tracks, for the careful observer, may
be rare. But in more remote areas, they may be present on or near a trail at
any time. Nonetheless, even along a trail where fresh tracks are found,
sightings are unlikely. That said, the absence of tracks does not indicate that
no lion is in the vicinity. Like housecats, lions may resort to dry ground,
rocks or snow-free areas where they may not leave tracks. Yet tracks are
sometimes found in deep snow.

For the reasons above, greater detail is in
order for identifying mountain lion tracks and then the safety guidelines for
hiking in mountain lion country. But a balanced perspective is in order also.
None of this is to imply that the risks are great. They are not. They are small.
Many other risks of higher magnitude confront the backpacker.

Yet finding the tracks of mountain lions and
adjusting our behavior to theirs helps us enjoy and understand the behavior of
the "hidden predator" from a distance most often of both time and space. With
the lion’s penchant for secrecy and avoidance, hikers may pass in the vicinity
of a mountain lion and never know that it was there.

With a balanced
perspective, a backpacker will neither go to the extreme of forgetting that he
or she is hiking in mountain-lion country, nor get distracted and pre-occupied
with fear of surprise attack. If sightings are rare, attacks are extremely so.

MOUNTAIN LION SIGN: TRACKS, SCAT, AND SO
ON

Tracks: Above is a
diagram representing mountain lion tracks and a track of a large canine such as
gray wolf. Below are photos of mountain-lion tracks in snow and soil. Each photo
was taken in the Black Hills. And each print is likely the combination of the
hind paw tracking (registering) directly over the print left by the front paw.
That is how lions walk.

Thus the shapes in the photos tend to represent
the rear paw but with remnants of the front paw, such as the apparent "extra
toe" shown in one of the photos below. That direct overlapping, or
"registering," is the way lion tracks are typically found. (More on "direct
registering" is discussed below under the difference between cat and dog
tracks.)

In each track below, noticeable are: the three
lobes at the rear of the pad, the lack of claw marks, and the close spacing
between toes and the front of the pad.

Lion Tracks Versus Dog Tracks:
It is not unusual for dog tracks to be mistaken for lion tracks, especially by
hikers not familiar with the distinctions. But in distinct tracks, upon close
inspection, there are several elements that aid in distinguishing which type of
animal left the prints.

1) Retractable claws.
Cats have the ability to retract their claws and normally do so when walking.
Thus their claws do not appear in their tracks. Dogs, however, are not able to
retract their claws and thus leave claw marks in most any clear track we find.
There may be rare cases in which a mountain lion briefly extends its
claws in making a track, but it is unlikely. Consecutive tracks with claw marks
indicate dog rather than cat.

2) Shape of pad.
The so-called "heel pad" or just "pad" (technically, metacarpal and metatarsal
pads) of a dog tends to be triangular, thus allowing an "X" pattern to be drawn
from between toes to between pad and outer toes. The pad of a mountain lion is
more trapezoidal, that is, with the front and rear of the pad being parallel and
the sides of the pad sloping in toward the toes. With lion tracks, an "X" with
straight intersecting lines can not be neatly found in the spaces between toes
and pad.

3) Lobes in the pad. As
part of the triangular versus trapezoidal shape of the pad, dogs have one lobe
at the front of the pad and two lobes at the rear of the pad. However, lions
have two lobes at the front of the pad and three lobes at the rear of the pad.
Often the lobe appearance is not distinct at the front of the pads in tracks.
But the three lobes at the rear of a mountain lion pad are often distinct in the
tracks and are a strong indication of mountain lion.

4) Overlap of tracks.
Cats and dogs walk by bringing their hind leg up and placing their hind paw over
or near the track left by their front paw. With cats, the overlap involves the
smaller hind track falling directly on top the front track. That is called
"direct registering."

When dogs bring their hind leg up, they commonly
do not center the hind track upon the track of the front paw. Instead the rear
dog track may barely overlap the track left by the front paw. In this "indirect
registering," the hind track is substantially off-center of the front track.

To the right are
differences in sets of tracks. There are a few subtleties beyond these, and
anyone wishing to examine the topic more thoroughly can visit Kim Cabrera's tracking pages.

The simplified distinctions provided are often
not apparent when we track the two animals. Cats and dogs, mountain lions and
Saint Bernards or wolves, make many subtle variations in their movements that
may require us to study their tracks for some distance before arriving at any
conclusion as to whether a cat or dog left the tracks.

As the animals swerve in the trail, twist their
bodies, slow and quicken their gate, we find that cats often do not direct
register and dogs sometimes do. What is consistent is that dogs can not retract
their claws, but rarely do we find fifty feet of tracks that are clearly
imprinted in the snow or damp soil. In the snow, wind may fill in the claw marks
of the dog with fine powder, thus making the prints appear to have been made by
a cat. Occasionally, if rarely, a cat may reflexively extend its claws on a
track.

Nevertheless, if we are able to follow a hundred
yards of fairly clear prints walking along some route, we can get a good idea of
whether a cat or dog made them. Perhaps they are nearly four inches wide like a
mountain lion. They follow the human tracks that preceded them. The tracks
usually don't direct register as a cat would, and the claw marks fairly often
are apparent. It is not a mountain lion stalking a hiker, but rather, it is his
trusted Saint Bernard dog.

Scat: The feces of
mountain lions may be distinguished by: segmenting, tapering or pointing on both
ends, by size that is near to that of humans, and often by the remnants of fur
or even small bones within the scat. In that form, lion scat is similar to wolf
scat , which is also segmented but does not have the tapering at the ends. And
that leads us back to domestic dogs, the descendants of gray wolves.

So
scat is not the most reliable of indicators in areas where dogs may also be
present. The South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks says that lion scat does not have a consistent shape. When
seen, it often has the shape described above. But another form may also suggest
the presence of a lion.

"Like house cats scratching furniture,
cougars mark their territory boundaries by leaving claw marks on trees,
stumps, and occasionally fence posts. Claw marks left by an adult cougar
will be 4 to 8 feet above the ground and consist of long, deep, parallel
scratches running almost vertically down the trunk. These gashes rarely take
off much bark;..."

But because bear and ungulates such as elk and
deer also scrape trees with claws or antlers, such trees can be difficult to
identify as belonging to a mountain lion. Beyond that, accurate identification
is likely to yield no information on recent lion activity. And the Missouri
Department of Conservation (in a state which has no recognized, established lion
population) goes so far as to doubt many of the claims made above on the nature
of scratching posts.

MOUNTAIN LION SAFETY TIPS

Elsewhere in North American, mountain lion
attacks on humans are rare. But because they have happened, knowledge of how to
avoid or survive attacks is widely available. While safety guidelines are
generally in agreement, some sources include tips not stated in other sources. A
summary of most is as follows:

IN GENERAL

Avoid hiking alone. But if you do, consider your
actions.

Avoid hiking at dusk or dawn.

Make noise to alert lions of your presence,
especially in tight places.

Carry a walking stick.

If hiking with a dog, don’t allow it to run free.

Don’t approach a lion’s kill, such as a deer
carcass. A lion may be near to defend it.

Never run. It makes you look like prey.

IF LION IS SIGHTED OR PRESENCE IS SUSPECTED

Don’t make quick movements.

Avoid any position below a lion.

Give lions escape routes.

Keep children near and in sight.

Stay in groups.

Avoid loud excitable talk.

Keep your backpack on to protect the back of your
neck.

Keep watch on lion.

Don’t turn your back on a lion.

Don’t crouch, sit, kneel, squat or adopt any
position that would make you look smaller.

Don’t attempt to hide, lie down, or play dead.

Glance around for possible weapons that you can pick
up without bending over.

Talk firmly to the lion while moving slowly
backward.

If lion sits, looks away, or grooms itself, it is
not likely predatory.

IF LION IS
STARING OR AGGRESSIVE

Put children on your shoulder or behind you.

Make eye contact. Lions like to attack when prey
isn’t looking.

If hiking with a group, stand shoulder to shoulder
facing the lion.

Seek position above lion.

Position obstacles such as trees or boulders between
yourself and the lion.

Make yourself look aggressive and bigger.

Raise and wave your arms and open your jacket.

Display your teeth.

Display weapons.

Make menacing sounds.

Take a firm stance. Convince the lion you are a
threat, not prey.

IF CHARGED OR ATTACKED

Throw stones, branches or whatever you can reach
without bending over.

Use a stick to run at or charge the lion. Stop short
of contact. Do not run away.

Use pepper spray if available and the lion is within
range.

Fight back, aiming for the head. Lions often break
off an attack.

Remain standing or try to get back up.

Those are the general safety and defense
guidelines. However, because the nature of the encounters or confrontations with
a mountain lion may vary, steps necessary for hikers’ safety or survival also
vary with conditions. The South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department (SDGFP)
provides a web page on Mountain Lion Language to summarize the appropriate human response to a variety
of mountain lion encounters. (Also see an outline of responses from
Dr. E. Lee Fitzhugh, University of California.)

On the South Dakota Game and Fish page are seven
scenarios, illustrated by photos, that vary from a distant lion that is paying
no attention and moving farther away to a close encounter in which the lion’s
ears are laid back, its teeth are bared, its tail is twitching, and the lion’s
rear legs are "pumping" gently up and down. In that situation, where lion attack
is considered imminent, that source recommends that the hiker charge the lion.

As indicated above, in rare circumstances a lion
may follow a hiker from a distance for a short duration of time. But that does
not necessarily indicate that the lion is "stalking" the hiker or preparing for
an attack. Paraphrasing the University of Oregon's Outdoor Pursuits Program: A
cougar remaining 50 yards distant is usually not going to attack. It may move
around or follow you for a few minutes, but that behavior most likely indicates
nothing more than curiosity.

Many of the actions advised for a lion encounter
are quite similar to those advised for encounters with a wolf or black bear —
but in some ways directly contrary to those advised for a grizzly bear
encounter.

With a grizzly bear, the advice is: do not make
eye contact, do not throw stones or branches, do not convince it that you are a
threat, and do not fight back if attacked — unless, of course, you are
employing bear spray according to recommendation. So it is good to remember
that, like individuals, different animals need to be treated differently.

MOUNTAIN LIONS IN WYOMING AND IN THE
BLACK HILLS

The information below is gleaned largely from the
Wyoming (pp. 37-39) and
South Dakota (pp. 1-3) mountain lion management plans.

From the late 1800s to the 1960s and 1970s, determined
efforts were made to exterminate wolves and mountain lions from the Western
United States. Of the two species, mountain lions proved more resilient and
persisted in severely restricted numbers in the West. Efforts to extirpate them
often involved bounties paid for each kill.

The Territory of Wyoming authorized bounties in 1882. In
1973 "the mountain lion was reclassified from a predator to a trophy game
animal," thus ending the bounties. But hunting was instituted in 1974 by license
and fee. In South Dakota, bounties ended in 1966. But only one mountain lion was
recorded as killed in South Dakota from 1906 to1931. And that was in the Black
Hills. Mountain lions were not protected by the state as "threatened" until
1978. They were not listed as a trophy game animal until 2003, and the first
"experimental" hunting season began in 2005.

The Black Hills, along the Wyoming-South Dakota
state line, is considered the easternmost mountain range of the Rocky Mountains.
It is also currently considered the easternmost center of a breeding population
of mountain lions in the Lower 48 States. With no alpine zone, the Black Hills
in entirety is prime mountain lion habitat with a multitude of both mule deer
and white-tail deer, and elk. And in the Black Hills are no resident populations
of bears or wolves, thus making mountain lions the uncontested top predator in
the area — other than humans.

Yet, until the late 1800s each of the West's large
predators were represented by robust populations in the Black Hills: including
grizzly and black bears, wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions. Each is a native
species to the area. Of those now, the coyote and mountain lion remain and the
black bear is an occasional migrant. And though a dispersing wolf from Greater
Yellowstone has been killed in the past few years in the Black Hills, wolves
reaching the area are considered quite rare —except by some folks who seem to fear them.

So by 2005,
the Black Hills area was considered "saturated" with mountain lions. The area
was considered to have reached carrying capacity and to contain as many of the
big cats as it could hold. Given the territorial nature of the species, the
population could not increase without expanding outward. So in that year a
hunting season was initiated.

Presently (July 2013), the Black Hills contain
the only known breeding population of mountain lions in the state of South
Dakota and far eastward. And Black Hills lions have been documented to travel
hundreds, even thousands, of miles. They travel mostly along river drainages, to
as far as southern Canada , Wisconsin , Oklahoma , and other states. As
far away as New England, genetic testing has proven that a mountain lion
found there originated in the Black Hills.

Nevertheless, due to the lions' secretive nature,
sightings even within the Black Hills are rare. Arriving at a population count
in the Black Hills has been difficult. In 2005, it was thought that about 165
lions resided in the South Dakota portion of the Black Hills with about 10 of
them thought to be adult males with established territories, 40 were females of
breeding age, and the other 90 to 100 were sub-adults, less than two years old.

However, according to South Dakota Game, Fish,
and Parks the estimated population for 2008 was 220 to 280 mountain lions, and
that remained the estimate up to 2010. (See
Management Plan, page 4.) The increase over what was previously considered
carrying capacity or species "saturation" is the result of revised formulas for
calculating population. With perhaps half that many in the Wyoming portion of
the Black Hills, the entire mountain range may be home to around 375 of the big
cats.

In the roughly 138-year history of Black Hills
settlement, according the South Dakota Mountain Lion Management Plan: To date,
there has been no documented wild mountain lion attack on a human being in the
Black Hills. That is much the same for the state of Wyoming as a whole — with
perhaps a small exception in which a man was very slightly injured in an
encounter near Laramie in 2006. However, to be realistic, for most of that
history, the native mountain-lion population was severely limited.

In the entire 20th century, no more than 17
people were slain by mountain lions in the United States. Though mountain
lions are shy animals if allowed to mature normally in a natural habitat, some
lose that shyness nearer towns. In the Black Hills, lions are
occasionally sighted entering inhabited areas where they have been discovered in
trees, crossing streets, in backyards, under porch steps, and so on.

HOAXES AND EMAIL PHOTOS

Emails forwarded.
For a review of hoaxes that have been perpetrated about mountain lions as far
away as New York, see this web page at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation . You may notice that photographs proven to have been
taken in Wyoming, such as the photo to the right, have been circulated within
the state of New York with the claim of having been taken in that state.
The simple lesson is to be very skeptical of forwarded emails about mountain
lions.

Local hoaxes or false
alarms. In the winter of 2007-2008, news media in the Black Hills area
gave much attention to a purported mountain lion attack on a human being.
Frankly, the news coverage was not very objective. It seemed each news outlet
swallowed the story with little skepticism. If the claim had proven valid, it
would have been the first documented wild lion attack on a human being in Black
Hills history. But news outlets accepted the story and spread it wide.

The South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department
immediately launched a thorough investigation into the claim. That investigation
included meeting the claimed "victim" at the hospital, going to the site of the
claim, searching with trained dogs within two hours and in the days following,
obtaining DNA analysis of all possible material evidence, and so on. Many people
believed the claim. Comments on websites verged on hysteria for children and
pets. Some denounced even the presence of mountain lions in the Black Hills.

But as days passed, the trained and highly experienced search dogs could find no
trace of any mountain lion even having been in the area. There was no blood or
evidence of struggle at the site of the claimed attack. The supposed "victim's"
wounds were inconsistent with mountain lion claws or bite. The DNA evidence all
came back negative for both mountain lion and the red fox the claimed "victim"
had said was in the mountain lion's mouth before the struggle. The man first had
claimed the struggle had lasted 5 minutes then changed his story to 5 seconds.
He admitted to having drunk several beers before the incident. But there was
simply no real evidence of such a struggle to be found.

While carefully declining to even mention "hoax," the
thorough investigation employing the best forensic science available persuaded
Game and Fish that the agency could not confirm the account. There was simply no
corroborating evidence and far too many inconsistencies in the claim. So
finally, news reports became more objective, carefully reported the many
problems with the man's story, and he disappeared from public notice. The
claim of attack was simply not credible.